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| May 2000 Guild Tidings The official Publication of The International Songwriters Guild Volume 5, No. 5 Happy Mother’s Day!! NEXT MEETING: 5:00 P.M. Sunday, May 7, 2000 Meetings are held the first Sunday of each month at 5:00 P.M. The location is 3020 E Robinson St., Orlando, Florida. (The American Federation of Musicians Union Building) Officers: President/Treasurer Russ Robinson (407) 851-5328 Vice President Paula Douglas (813) 839-5493 Secretary Annabelle Wosgien (407) 654-9294 Member Reception Matthew Griffin (407) 903-1212 President’s Letter Dear Members, So much happening, it’s hard to decipher a starting point. I might add much of the news comes from members activities I’m part of. I wish I could help each of you, and I do try. Recently I’ve had an experience I hope to have results of success between one of our members and a young singer, Melissa Rae, who will perform for us Sunday. I brought Susan Foster-Trewick (SusieCool) in to write for her, and it looks like things are happening. An Agent is presently in Los Angeles with a CD of the results, and it looks good thus far. April 16th I attended a great workshop conducted by Rusty Gordon at Mars Music. Her 3 hour talk was most beneficial. Ms Gordon has been a writer, publisher and into promotion and marketing for many years and I felt that for the $10 fee I learned and remembered many things I had forgotten. I left the meeting ready to conquer songwriting like never before!! She will be back in Orlando late July and I highly recommend you attend. I’d like to have her conduct a Guild workshop just for the Guild. We will discuss this Sunday. Don’t forget the Casements Songwriters Showcase in Ormond May 20th. I go every year and it is enjoyable. I will give details at Sunday’s meeting Do you have all the new copyright rules? Bring pen and paper to meeting so you can take notes. This is important. We still need to form a group of those wanting to attend the free Songwriters Showcase at the Disney Institute, hosted by Nashville’s Bluebird Café. Every month, 3 big name writers from Nashville conduct, We’ll give the date of next Showcase at meeting Sunday. Hope to see all of you Sunday. We have a good meeting coming up. I suppose V. President Paula Douglas has already left for San Francisco. We wish her the best of luck with her future. We will need to have an election soon. Best ever, Russ Web Chatter Hi folks Here’s your friendly Cybertoad to give you some interesting links on the World Wide Web. Http://www.lawgirl.com This is a website created by an entertainment lawyer. There is an interesting article there about the future of the Digital Music Industry. http://ww.jpfolks.com This is a website hosted by Brian Austin Whitney. It is for songwriters who are independents, and has many articles by publishers and others in the music business. It covers all genres, and if you subscribe (for free), he will e-mail newsletters to you. Http://www.harmonycentral.com This is one of my favorites. It has many links to everything musical. Browse this one carefully, or you will miss interesting stuff. There are articles from Taxi in here too. http://www.loc.gov/copyright This is where you can download the Library of congress form PA (for Performing arts), or SR (for sound recordings.) Lots of exciting things are happening in Cyberland. We hope to be able to get as many of your E-mail addresses so that we can send e-letters to most of you in the near future. I am yours faithfully: cybertoad2000@yahoo.com As the World Tunes By Steve Bussey Part Two: More World Wide Web Sales Last time we talked about how an unsigned, "local" band can easily sell its CD and merchandise to a customer in almost any place on the earth. We concentrated on the basic process of get your web page up and sell your CDs at Amazon.com. There are many other web retailers you can deal with when selling your CDs. Each has it’s own unique way of conducting business. Here are a few. The Orchard (www.theorchard.com) - All artists are provided with a page on The Orchard site, including their name, album photo, artist photo and a brief description. There is a $40 Administrative Fee per title. The Orchard will pay you seventy (70%) percent of their net income which directly results from sales of any of your recordings. GEMM (www.gemm.com) - There is no up front charge, they operate entirely on 3% to 15% commissions and sales of banner advertising. If you do not have a web site, the moment you complete the registration form, you have an on-line catalog and a direct address on the Internet that you can publish and promote. If you do have a web site you can use GEMM as a "back-end" to your own web pages, giving them secure order forms, dependable order tracking, and searchable catalog functionality with no cost or technical challenge to yourself. Creative Musicians Coalition (CMC) (www.aimcmc.com)- CMC is a worldwide coalition dedicated to the advancement and success of independent musicians. There are several levels of membership starting at the Basic Level for twenty-five dollars per year, but you may want the Standard Level Artist Membership Rate at $395 per album title. These are just a few of the companies available to sell you compact discs on the World Wide Web. New ones are popping up every day. You may want to use several. Next month we will take a look at the exciting world of direct downloading of your music. Classified advertising may be placed free of charge to members in good standing in the ISG. For more information on display advertising and/or classified advertising for non-members, please contact Russ Robinson at the # above, or e-mail: i_s_g_2000@yahoo.com April TOP FIVE WINNERS Of last month’s Evaluation Session (Members only) First Place: “SATIRICAL BLUES” Susan Foster-Trewick Second Place: “I’M HAPPY ‘CAUSE I SING” Paul Vernon Third Place: “ORLANDO” Jeff Mason Fourth Place: “WONDERING WHERE THIS BUCKAROO HAS BEEN” Dale Cunningham Fifth Place: “I HAVE MEMORIES” Robert Konecnik © 2000 ISG |